This is Holy Week for Christians, and many folks who attend worship services only at Easter and Christmas will be back in church. But as Tim Goeglein of Focus on the Family argues, the key to restoring life in America is getting back in church more regularly.

For decades, a major source of community for many Americans was their local house of worship. While those attending may have had varying degrees of commitment to living out their faith, they would gather to enjoy fellowship with each other as they passed through the stages of life — from childhood all the way to life’s eventual end.

Unfortunately, fewer Americans are enjoying that community these days, and we are worse off for it as a nation. While there may be a lot of people coming in and out of our lives, fewer have the deep, abiding ties that are developed within a religious body. As a result, Americans are more alone than ever.

Goeglein then looks at some numbers:

A few weeks ago, a new Marist poll found that while 54 percent of Americans still believe in the “God of the Bible,” they increasingly shun religious services — and the numbers are even worse for younger generations.

This is the result of the trickle-down as religious attendance declined with each passing generation. As Daniel Cox, director of the Survey Center on American Life, writes, “The parents of millennials and Generation Z did less to encourage regular participation in formal worship services and model religious behaviors in their children than had previous generations.”

As they say, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. In this case, that’s been bad.

Compared to those who either infrequently attend religious services or do not attend at all, regular attenders are more actively involved in their communities and have stronger social ties with others. Is it any wonder that the unraveling of civility and our social fabric started to occur when attending weekly services became a kind of cafeteria option rather than a priority?

Goeglein points to COVID lockdowns as being destructive of the bond people had with church.

Many houses of worship chose to video stream their services online. This means many could try to worship and watch the sermon in solitude yet never have to connect with others as part of a church body. While video streaming may have provided a new avenue for people to receive religious instruction, it also created an attendant and unstated religious isolation.

Without a rock such as a local religious body to stand upon, we have witnessed more people becoming morally, emotionally, and physically adrift — something we see played out daily across the country. In addition, with the loss of commitment to a religious body comes a loss of a vital institution that has always been a source of connection with others.

He concludes:

If we are going to restore community in America, one of the first places to start is to get people back to houses of worship, instead of watching sermons on TV or not attending. Such a community changes the shape and form of our social priorities and focus — from self to selfless — as we become connected with others in the common bond of faith.

Such a vibrant and renewed community will bring restoration to our current fragmented state and bring us back together again for the common good — for us and society. This would be soulcraft at its most important, and the kind of regeneration our country deeply needs.

Read the whole thing here.